“You know them,” she cut in, leaning forward in her chair, stomach flipping. “Vin and his father, you–you already know them, obviously. How?”
Father and son exchanged a fast, dark look.
“I know most of the pack leaders,” he began slowly, with the air of a man choosing his words with care. “It’s in my best interest to do so. The closer one is to a problem, the better one can see it coming. As I mentioned before, my wife escaped a situation not dissimilar to your own. This is . . . family of hers. Cousins, I believe. She never looked back.” He held her eye, and Jude nodded before he’d even finished his sentence. “I advise you to do the same. These people are dangerous. It’s not inyourbest interest to learn to what extent. I hope we’ll be seeing you soon, Jude. Best of luck, no matter what you decide.”
When he rose from the table, it was clear their conversation was over and she was dismissed. He was arrogant, and she could understand why Vin’s father disliked him, but he was throwingher a lifeline, one she was eager to grab, as long as she had a shadow at her back.
“I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Hemming.”
“Please,” he laughed, holding up a hand. “Jack. Call me Jack. Mr. Hemming is my son.”
They were several steps away, when they were headed off. Jude held her breath, wondering if violence was about to erupt, but Carmine merely shook Jack Hemming’s hand jovially, clapping him on the back in a ridiculous performance of friendliness. Trapp turned back, glancing furtively to where his father was now engaged in an unwilling-looking conversation with Vin’s uncle. He gave her a dazzling, blinding smile, engulfing her in his huge arms, pulling her in close for a hug.
“You’re about twenty or thirty minutes away from the airport from here,” he hissed in her ear. “There’s a bus station just after the arrivals exit, we passed it coming in. If you get on a bus tonight you can be in Cambric Creek by late morning.” Releasing her with one arm, he surreptitiously pulled out a money clip, peeling off several large bills, making a big show of leaning in again to kiss her cheek, passing her the cash as discreetly as possible. “You didn’t get this from me, understand? Get yourself a ticket, and get the fuck out of here. The adrenaline is practically dripping off the walls, can you smell it? I don’t think you can afford to wait. These people are crazy. Good luck. I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”
Chapter 9
Her flight from the club was hardly without issue.
The old man had been wroth.
“You’re just going to turn your back on us?” he’d seethed, struggling to his feet after Jack Hemming had turned down whatever crooked deal the pack had been offering, and whatever offer of help Vin’s father had been hoping for along with it. “You’ll turn your back on your people, on family, and go home to your golden tower.”
For the first time since his arrival, Jack Hemming bared his teeth in warning.
“You’re notmypeople. You were my wife’s people, once, but she’s a lifetime away from that, and you’re not owed anything. Certainly not from me.”
The old man had blustered and shouted, Vin’s voice raising angrily alongside him as the uncle seethed silently, but the taller man’s smile never slipped. She understood it was an affectation, and that he was likely doing his best to get under the other wolf’s skin, and it had worked. Jude realized, as they disappeared outthe club’s door, that the only reason the arrogant man and his charming son had shown up that night was because of her, to meet her and offer her a lifeline, and she wasn’t about to paddle in the other direction.
Once the men were gone, shouting broke out amongst the assembled members of the pack, angry accusations made about promises undelivered and mismanaged money. When one of them grabbed her arm, hauling her forward as an example of bad decisions as he bellowed, she’d known the time to act had come. Vin got into the other man’s face, eager to throw his weight around, now that the bigger wolves were gone, wrenching her away from the other man to scream in her face himself. She’d managed to wriggle an arm free as he blathered, catching him on the chin with her elbow and twisting out of his grip, but her freedom was short-lived as she was swung around in an arc that rocked her off her heels. She might have wrenched an ankle, but his slap sent her sprawling, landing on her ass at the base of one of the tables, cracking the heel off her shoe and giving her perfect witness to the blur that came from the corner of the room; the dark, previously empty corner of the room.
“You should have all stayed home tonight,” he hissed, a silky-cold glide like an unseen ice cube to the back of the neck. She arched at the phantom sensation, the sound of the voice and the chill it invoked thrilling her, even as Vin, pinned beneath Lux’s dark form, gurgled and kicked. “It’s a shame you didn’t.”
Jude stared from the base of the banquette, clutching the broken heel of her shoe like it was some sort of protective talisman, tasting the copper of her own blood. She watched Vin thrash, attempting in vain to dislodge his assailant, but it was no use. He should have known there was no sense in fighting. Once Lux was moved enough to pull from the darkest corner of the room, it was, as he’d once told her, too late. Jude watchedas Vin’s leg twitched, jerked, feeling curiously empty as his struggles slowed.
Pandemonium exploded around her, and Jude knew this was the only chance she was going to get.
Crawling backwards from the press of bodies, she flipped once her back hit the wall, crouching as she raced to the back of the room. No one knew this club better than her, after all. The guard that had been positioned at the top of the core door had moved into the main room to see what was going on, giving her the ability to duck into the kitchen and around the back hallway.
Her bag was packed, her broken heels discarded back in the club, and it only took a few seconds to slip into her new sneakers. Hoisting her backpack on her back and slinging her duffel over her shoulder, she was out the door in a flash. Around the back of the building, and into an alley, she zigzagged through parking lots and behind dumpsters, until she found herself able to dart through a piss-drenched corridor to the opposite street, across from the expensive food market.
She’d left behind the cell phone Vin had given her, but she had bought herself a burner phone from the superstore the previous month, kept it loaded and charged, ready for this moment. The young man who pulled up to the curb in the rideshare she’d ordered looked as wary of her as she felt of him, and her heart never actually stopped hammering until she was loaded onto the bus an hour later, pulling out of the station and leaving Vin, the club, and the pack behind. And maybe Lux, she thought with a heavy heart.
***
It was a fresh start, she reminded herself for the umpteenth time as they bumped along the highway, moving from town to town,city to city. She could spin on a dime, make the best of whatever circumstances fate dropped on her. That was the way she had survived all this time.
Never in her life had she been afforded an open road before her without someone else in the driver seat; never before had she gained the opportunity to start fresh.They said it was a nice place, and no one will care what kind of wolf I am. She wanted badly to believe it,neededto believe it, but if their words proved untrue, she could always disappear into the cityscape, eclipsed, and live as a human. It would be easy, and there would be no one telling her not to.
It was several hours into the journey when she began to cry.
He knew the plan, had been right there when the younger of the two men had turned back to her. He knew where she was going, and how she would get there. Perhaps he’d be there waiting for her, if he was planning on coming with her at all.
Jude didn’t know if he was planning on keeping his word, and it only occurred to her then that he’d never actuallypromisedto come with her, only that he’d ensure her safety.There’s no one waiting for you anywhere. There never has been. Why should this be any different?She had never mattered to anyone, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she didn’t matter now, Jude thought miserably, but that didn’t mean the knowledge didn’t hurt.
It wasn’t until they pulled into a city called Bridgeton that she became aware of a pressure around her ankle.
Dawn had broken several hours earlier, pinky gold fingers stretching across the sky as the bus rumbled through early rush-hour traffic, and now it was mid-morning. A golden glow lit the sky, and she was glad that she’d managed to get a window seat towards the back of the bus, the young woman who’d sat next to her having slept for most of the overnight journey. The young woman was gone now, and the bus was mostly empty. Bridgetonwas a big city, and she knew that the bus would be full again by the time it pulled out of the station, headed onward to its next destination, but she would not be on it. This was her stop, and something had settled around her ankle.
